One of the things discussed from time to time, is the possibility of a Kindle edition for 5 Acres & A Dream The Book. Now that I have my very own Kindle, I was curious as to how my book would look on it. I had a Kindle-ready pdf from CreateSpace, so I used Calibre to convert it to both mobi and epub formats. The following are photos and screenshots of how it looks in each of these.
I’m using chapter 4 for my example because it contains all the elements I was curious about: text, photos, and diagrams. I had to shrink the images for the blog, but we can at least get an idea of layout and legibility.
The pdf is identical to the book. Here it is in ePub.
The reader is on my computer, the one that came with Calibre. The mobi photos (next) are of my book on my Kindle, which I downloaded from Calibre. Please forgive the glare and wonkiness!
The two eBook versions look similar in that it took two screens to display one page. Also the text formatting (or lack of) is the same. This is because they were converted directly from the pdf rather than formatted specifically for an ebook device. The pdf was originally created in a desktop publisher (Scribus) for the print version. Ebooks are created differently, depending upon the conversion method of whomever is doing it. Smashwords requires a .doc file, while Kindle Direct Publishing prefers html for the best results.
What this means is that 5 Acres & A Dream The Book would have to be formatted from scratch for each of these, both text and images.
Here are a few more samples.
In general I was pretty happy with the way the photos came out. Even though my book interior is black and white, that didn’t make a difference on my basic Kindle, which only displays B&W anyway. The Kindle Fire will display color photos, which would be a definite plus on that device.
The real test was copies of my various master plans.
At 4.75″ by 6″, the image on the book page is barely legible. When displayed on the 3.5″ by 4.75″ Kindle screen, it is impossible to read; the labels are simply too small. Considering that the master plans get a lot of interest and positive feedback, this would be a real problem.
To consider producing eBook versions would take a lot of work. The book would have to be rebuilt from the ground up for each venue. The master plans, however, appear to be the deal breaker.
Feedback? What do you all think?